Counterpoint (40 page)

From Gregor’s security camera tapes the
car registration was traced back to the hire company, again the FBI
drew a blank. The car had been so well cleaned that it was obvious
the reason was to hide evidence. Again, a good lead came to a dead
end.

Mike Teal considered the facts so far.
One of the two suspects was badly wounded; this is also supported
by the cleaned car. “These people are very smart and probably have
a major organisation behind them,” he muttered. “If their target
was Gregor, then it must be something that he is involved with and
it's gone wrong in some way. This is probably some sort of scheme
to get him out of the way or possibly a takeover.”

“You mean the Mafia have fallen out
with him,” said Mike’s partner Steve Wilcox.

“Most likely I would say, but why have
they relied on planted evidence when a bullet would be more
efficient.”

"Yes," said Wilcox thoughtfully “I see
what you mean. Anyway, where was I, oh yes! If one of them is
wounded, then medical help would be needed, fast. If dead, then the
body will turn up soon, and may tell its own story. Better check
out all the medical facilities first,” Mike commanded.

“Having returned the hire car, do they
still need one or have they left the area? My guess is they are
still here, probably having medical treatment and therefore still
need transport. Check out the other car hire people in walking
distance. No, check if any taxis picked up from the hire company
and where did they drop their passengers off, these creeps are just
too smart to walk into the hire place next door, that’s too
obvious.”

“I’m on it,” Wilcox replied, not
wanting to wait around for the list of jobs to grow.

The phone rang, and Gregor Yeltsin
aggressively snatched it up. “Yes, ” he said impatiently.

The voice at the other end reported the
latest developments from his contact in the police department. “It
seems the FBI has only two possible leads to follow, one is to find
out if any medical facility is treating the wounded person, and the
other is to find out if they have hired another car.”

"OK," said Gregor, “Concentrate on the
medical option; we stand a better chance of finding them that way
than the FBI. Also, I have been looking into the personnel files of
those employed on the mineral survey, the one Matt Stone messed up.
There was a girl there and an old man, who suddenly arrived out of
the blue, to do administrative work. They match the descriptions of
Jane Tyler and Jack Hoffer, who came to see me claiming to be
Stone’s father. I’ll fax you the details now, check them out, trace
their immediate family and deal with them in your usual efficient
way. Keep me informed. Goodbye, ” he said smartly and hung up.

He called his secretary to come into
his office, “Fax these two documents to this number, and I am
flying up to the Florida base on Monday” he stated “Set it up for
me Natasha.”

“At once,” she said, “I’ll give you the
schedule directly.” She turned and left his office.

The next day, Gregor was brought up to
date with the family connections of Max and Carla.

The voice on the phone said, “The girl
appeared to have no family and practically did not exist two years
ago. She worked for a shadowy concern in Italy during the last two
years, possibly longer. Apart from being incredibly wealthy, there
is nothing more to tell. The man is a different story. He is a
retired businessman and has a son in the UK. Rumour has it that he
and the girl have a sort of relationship and have known each other
for about nine months. He has received money from the concern in
Italy, and he also has suddenly become exceedingly wealthy.”

“His son has developed some
revolutionary software and has been peddling it on the Internet. It
made me wonder if somehow he had got hold of Project Oracle.”

“Yes, I remember,” said Gregor
thoughtfully. “A guy called Philippe something or other was selling
it, but suddenly he and Oracle vanished off the face of the Earth.
I thought some government must have bought it and shut it down. If
it could do just a fraction of what was claimed the whole
industrialised world would be in jeopardy. Follow up on the Son and
find out if he has Oracle, then let me know before you do
anything.”

“Right! Gregor,” said the voice, “I’ll
be in touch.” The voice ended his call.

The second day after Max’s life-saving
operation repaired his liver, his temperature dropped back to
nearly normal. Max wanted to get up and out of bed. Because his
wounds were healing astonishingly quickly and all signs of
infection were gone, his drain tubes and drip were removed.

Rodney and Kate were delighted at his
recovery and were more convinced than ever that what Carla had told
them about Max’s experiment, was true. Already they were planning
to take Max’s medical breakthrough and re-launch it as their
own.

They asked Carla about the facilities
Max had used to develop his treatment. She enjoyed embroidering the
lie.

Without Carla or Max knowing, Rodney
managed to obtain secure premises that could be used as Max’s
laboratory. Secure that is, because Max and Carla would not be able
to leave it until Rodney and Kate had the secret process,
themselves.

As Carla expected, guards were posted
outside their private room and also in the hospital grounds. They
followed Max everywhere now he was mobile.

Seven days after the operation Max had
fully recovered, even the scabs on the stitched wounds had fallen
off, leaving small pink areas of shrinking scar tissue. Max was
glad to be able to get properly dressed and move about.

At 11 am that morning Rodney came into
the private room looking very worried, Agent Steve Wilcox from the
FBI had arrived and was asking questions about a young girl and an
older man, one of which was wounded. The physical description
matched Carla and Max perfectly. The FBI agent would not say why
they were looking for the couple, but it was obviously a serious
matter.

Max and Carla were told to pack and
would be taken out as patients on Gurneys to a waiting ambulance.
There was a safe facility prepared for them.

Max had expected Rodney and Kate to
pull a stunt like this, though not so soon. Carla had extremely bad
vibes and thought the same, although she wondered if the FBI story
was a bit imaginative for Rodney and Kate. Perhaps the FBI were
here and closing in on them. They both knew the story was true when
the gurneys arrived in a hurry, and no one was stopping to stick
them with a strong sedative. Just three minutes later they were in
the ambulance, siren blaring as it shot away as though on its way
to an emergency.

When the ambulance had to stop at
traffic lights in the City, Max and Carla launched an attack on the
two guards with them and escaped into the nearby crowd. The
ambulance driver and the man with him, gave chase, leaving a string
of angry car drivers honking their horns behind the abandoned
vehicle, when the lights changed.

Max and Carla took a taxi back to the
Douvane Private Hospital and sneaked in to get their car. They
needed it for mobility and to recover all their other
belongings.

On a hunch, Steve Wilcox saw the
ambulance leave the Douvane and followed as best he could in his
car. He had left Mike Teal to ask questions at the hospital while
he waited to see if it had smoked anyone out. He was now sure it
had.

He glimpsed the man and girl slipping
out of the back of the ambulance and then two men chasing them, but
he was unable to get out of his car in time to pursue them. He
called his partner and told him what had happened and made his way
back to the Douvane. When Wilcox got back there, Mike Teal met him
at the entrance.

“I have just seen the two suspects;
they came back for their car and drove off. I have put out a call
to follow them when we spot the car and see where it leads us.”

“Good thinking Mike, now we will see
what lies behind this set-up.”

Moments later a call came through to
them to say that the car had been seen, and gave its location.
“Don’t spook them and don’t lose them,” ordered Mike Teal when he
intercepted the call.

Gregor’s phone rang. The voice at the
other end reported that Max and Carla’s car had been found, and the
FBI was just following them to see where they went and who they
were working for.

“Kill them both,” demanded Gregor.
“That’s not going to be easy with the FBI on their trail.” “Do them
as well then, but get the job done now and end the matter,” snapped
Gregor and slammed the phone down.

“You look a little tense my love,” said
Max in his usual chirpy way, not that he felt that way inside, he
was trying to calm Carla.

Carla looked at him dumbfounded. “Don’t
you realise, we have the FBI on our trail, probably the police as
well not to mention the heavy boys at the Douvane. Here we are
crawling along in the lunchtime rush-hour traffic, and you don’t
seem to have a care in the world.”

“Damn!” She cursed, “you have missed a
turn now, better take the next turn and go back around.”

"Sorry," said Max in a subdued voice,
“I was distracted. It’s just that getting up tight won’t change
anything and I think clearer if I am calm.” She didn’t comment, but
let him loop back to take the correct turn, un-distracted.

“Looks like the two guys in the black
car behind us took a wrong turn as well” mentioned Max.

“Oh hell! They are definitely following
us, even though they are now two cars behind” observed Carla.

“What shall we do oh cunning one?”
Replied Max.

“Just keep going for a while, I will
check out the vehicles ahead as well, if they cycle the cars in
front and behind I will spot them and when I say so, we will make a
break for it.”

She studied her street map and noted
the other vehicles in front and behind. Soon a pattern emerged,
there were six different cars that turned off either behind or in
front of them, but eventually they all returned to tail them.

“Okay, ” she murmured, “I have them,
now I’ll see where they go and predict when they return.”

A half hour later she had it figured.
“They are keeping up with us because they know better routes using
side roads than following the main flow. I think they may also get
a priority by remotely controlling traffic lights. When I say-so,
indicate right and flow round with the traffic, but at the last
minute go hard left and cut across the oncoming traffic.” “What!”
Exclaimed Max, “That’s a bit risky, some silly bugger will probably
drive into me.”

“Well don’t stop, even if they do,” she
retorted “just plough on through.”

A few minutes later, “Okay, ” she said,
“Ready, start right!

Now hard left she shouted.”

Max dabbed the brakes hard while
accelerating hard and also spinning the steering wheel full lock
left. The car behind seeing the taillights, braked hard and stopped
in surprise, then the car behind ran into him. Aiming straight
across the path of an oncoming black SUV and blaring his horn, Max
assumed the driver would stop and let him through, but he
accelerated and braked hard across Max’s path. Max had no room to
steer in front or behind, to get by, so rammed the back corner of
the SUV as he drove by.

The black vehicle bucked and spun
around 90 degrees under the impact blocking the whole junction. The
crumpled back wing of the SUV ripped open its tyre as it tried to
turn around in the road to give chase.

Max accelerated away up the opposite
street until Carla gave him new turns to take.

Several minutes later they left the car
in a side street, set light to it and carrying their things, set
off on foot among the crowd of shoppers.

"Well," said Carla over a latte, “You
handled that perfectly. The junction was left in total gridlock,
the pursuing cars were all on the other side of the jam except the
one you hit up the rear. You turned it round the wrong way and
wrecked the wheel nicely, so the only remaining pursuer was stuffed
as well.”

She looked so bright-eyed and excited
that Max wanted to pull her to him and make passionate love to her.
He knew from experience that she was craving for sex, she always
was when she was hyped up like this, and he certainly was too.

They finished their
drink and hailed a taxi. The driver took them to a small but clean
boarding house where they checked in on
a
big cash bonus for no-questions-asked
basis.

The door of the small room slammed
behind them as they dropped all they carried and then they pulled
off each other’s clothes on the way to the large double bed. Their
hot and sweaty bodies were soon locked in a hard but slow rhythm.
Passionate kissing and caressing wound up their sexual craving.
They took whatever pleasure they wanted from the other, selfishly
and urgently. Their eyes were open but unseeing as their
trance-like state overcame them. Carla’s demanding squeals and
Max’s gasping moans became more frequent as the rhythm increased,
mutual stimulation of every sense reached its final crescendo when
they both reached orgasm together. The flood of hormonal relief
swept over both of them as their movement subsided and they lay
still coupled, gasping for air.

Their hot, satisfied bodies seemed
glued together with slippery sweat. Max explored the sensation of
their wet bellies as they slid, one against the other. Carla loved
this warm and intimate bond and squirmed against him in response.
She felt Max’s semen ooze out from her, even though he was still
large inside her, it ran down the crack, past her anus and soaked
into the sheets. She did not care, it was not her bed. Sleep soon
overcame them for the next two hours.